README

distel 3.2 -- Distributed Emacs Lisp for Erlang.
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Distel is a library for Emacs<->Erlang communication, plus a suite of
tools built on top of it, such as a debugger front-end. It works by
using the Erlang distribution protocol to connect Emacs with regular
Erlang nodes, turning it into a very convenient user-interface
toolkit.
After the INSTALL procedure, you will have an extended Erlang mode any
time you edit erlang files. You can see that this is enabled from the
mode-line string "Erlang EXT", instead of just "Erlang". To see the
available commands, use `describe-mode' (C-h m), which describes all
the currently activated modes. Near the bottom of its output you will
find this description:
Extensions to erlang-mode for communicating with a running Erlang node.
These commands generally communicate with an Erlang node. The first
time you use one, you will be prompted for the name of the node to
use. This name will be cached for future commands. To override the
cache, give a prefix argument with C-u before using the command.
C-c C-d l - List all Erlang processes ("pman").
M-? - Complete a module or remote function name.
M-. - Jump from a function call to its definition.
M-* - Jump back from a function definition (multi-level).
C-c C-d : - Evaluate an erlang expression from the minibuffer.
C-c C-d L - Reload an Erlang module.
C-c C-d p - Profile (with fprof) an expression from the minibuffer.
C-c C-d P - View profiler results from an "fprof:analyse" file.
C-c C-d i - Toggle debug interpreting of the module.
C-c C-d b - Toggle a debugger breakpoint at the current line.
C-c C-d S - Synchronizes current breakpoints to erlang.
C-c C-d m - Popup the debugger's process monitor buffer.
C-c C-d s - Create an interactive "session" buffer.
Most commands that pop up new buffers will save your original window
configuration, so that you can restore it by pressing 'q'. Use
`describe-mode' (C-h m) on any Distel buffer when you want
to know what commands are available. To get more information about a
particular command, use "C-h k" followed by the command's key
sequence. For general information about Emacs' online help, use
"C-h ?".
If you want to write new commands of your own, the programmer's manual
tells you how. You can make a postscript copy with "make postscript",
or an Info version with "make info" and "make info_install".
For more background about the "Session" commands, have a look in
README.ie-session.
Hope you enjoy, and please send hacks or feedback to luke@bluetail.com!
PS: The "dynamic TAGS" with M-. and M-* is the coolest bit to get
started with!
Compatibility notes:
The profiler front end requires >= R8B (to get fprof)
The debugger front end requires >= R8B-1
Distel itself is tested with Erlang R8 and R9, GNU Emacs 20.x and
21.x, and XEmacs 21.x. Snapshots from CVS may sometimes only work
with GNU Emacs 21 (or, of course, not work at all :-))